In 1978, I was admitted to Harbin Institute of Technology

Chapter 169: It’s not a constant temperature and humidity dust-free workshop, is it really a CNC system?
"What? You've figured it out? You've tested it and there's no problem. You're modifying the first batch of CNC machine tools? Great! That's great! I'll be at your school tomorrow!"

The person in charge, who had no hope, never expected that Li Rui would give him such a big surprise.

While feeling pleasantly surprised, he also calmed down when he thought about Li Rui's usual behavior.

Prepare to go directly to the school to see the results.

If I don't go and see for myself, what if the other party is just bragging?

After receiving the call, Li Rui's mind started to move again.

The department took the initiative to inquire, and even a deputy minister came to the school to inspect the results. Isn't this just sending money to someone's doorstep?
Regardless of the fact that it was already past ten o'clock in the evening, he immediately asked Yuan Zhenyue to go to the Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Department to ask Du Guowang and Xie Wei to come to his office.

"By the way, call Mu Zhiping as well."

"Principal, it's so late..."

The last thing Yuan Zhenyue wanted to do was to deal with that old silver coin Xie Wei.

It's such a big scam.

Some time ago, the principal didn't want to see Xie Wei, mainly because he was afraid that Xie Wei would cause him trouble, so he had a relaxing life for a while.

"Tell them that the money from the ministry will arrive soon. They can use this opportunity to get funding for continued research on the CNC system they have developed."

When Yuan Zhenyue heard that someone was sending money to his door, he thought it was a good thing and immediately went to the metalworking workshop happily.

Since the first CNC system was installed on the lathe, the modified CNC lathe in the metalworking workshop has never stopped and has been undergoing various tests.

In order to speed up the progress, we worked overtime in the past two days to transform three machines.

Although the processing accuracy cannot reach that of top-level lathe operators, the efficiency is incomparable.

The biggest advantage is that it does not require years of training or too much experience. As long as the program is well compiled, anyone can receive a very short period of training, install the part blanks, and press the start button, and they can replace a fifth or even sixth level lathe operator who has received years of training.

Therefore, after the results were achieved, everyone involved in the project put in great enthusiasm.

"The Ministry sent money?"

Xie Wei looked at Yuan Zhenyue suspiciously.

When did the Seventh Ministry of Machine Building become so generous?
"Could it be that the principal has boasted about something in the department again and the department has sent someone to check?"

Du Guowang still understands Li Rui.

"I'm not sure about the details. The principal asked me to ask you to go to his office to discuss it..."

Yuan Zhenyue wiped the non-existent sweat with the back of his hand, and suddenly realized that being Principal Li Rui's assistant was not so easy.

When Wu Tao went to the School-Enterprise Office and I took over his position, I thought it was a higher starting point.

"I guess he is just bragging again. It has something to do with us."

Du Guowang didn't want to go.

"Let's go and have a look. What if our CNC system test results are good and the principal goes to the department to ask for an order? CNC machine tools are very important for the improvement of aerospace manufacturing technology."

Hearing Yuan Zhenyue say that he would also go to find Mu Zhiping, Xie Wei felt that there was a high possibility that Li Rui helped to get the order without discussing it with them.

The school received a large amount of funding from selling calculators, which gave Principal Li great motivation to promote the new product.

The three of them went to Li Rui's office together.

"…The ministry didn't say clearly whether it would give us the order. I said we'd finish it, and then Vice Minister Hu said he'd come to our school tomorrow…"

This time, Li Rui was full of confidence.

It's not that he's just bragging, nor is it that he wants to attract funding from his superiors.

"That's weird."

Du Guowang looked puzzled. "That shouldn't be the case. We have only developed a two-axis linkage CNC lathe control system. We haven't even started testing the three-axis linkage milling machine control system. The department can't possibly attach so much importance to it."

Only three-axis and multi-axis CNC machine tools can greatly improve the quality of aerospace-related products.

The precision of the two-axis CNC lathe is not very high, so it is impossible for the department to attach so much importance to it.

"Who cares! Since Vice Minister Hu is here, we have to ask him to leave some funds and give us some orders! Many of the machinery factories under the ministry need technical upgrades!"

Li Rui didn't care about that and told Du Guowang not to think too much. He turned to the others and said, "We should find a way to get more funding from the department..."

"..."

Several people looked at Principal Li in confusion.

Why do you want more funds?

"Since the control system of the two-axis CNC lathe is fine, the three-axis is almost there, so how far are the four-axis and five-axis ones?"

"..."

The corners of their mouths twitched, and they looked at Li Rui with complicated expressions.

It is true that ignorance is bliss.

If we have mastered the two-axis linkage CNC system, can we easily make a four-axis or even a five-axis one?
Does Principal Li really understand what four-axis and five-axis are?
With each additional control coordinate, the technical difficulty increases exponentially.

What's more, many aerospace products have many special-shaped parts, which require very high shape and position engineering, which further increases the difficulty.

Otherwise, CNC machine tools, especially high-precision machine tools with three or more axes linkage, would not be called strategic equipment and would be absolutely banned from socialist countries!

CNC machine tools with more than three axes can be called industrial mother machines!

"Principal, the ministry hasn't disclosed any information. How can we ask for funding?"

Xie Wei frowned.

"The gap between the two-axis system and the three-axis system is very large. It will take at least three months to master the three-axis milling machine control system, and that's just an untested sample."

Mu Zhiping's brows were also twisted together.

He shouldn't have been involved in the internal affairs of the Seventh Ministry of Machine Building.

However, this is a cooperative project between Harbin First Machine Building Industry Co., Ltd. and Harbin Institute of Technology. If anything goes wrong, the punishment they receive will be more severe than that of Harbin Institute of Technology.

"So long? Didn't we say before that we would work on all three axes at the same time? It's just adding a direction coordinate control! I thought we had already finished working on the three axes, so that we could tell the department that we were almost there with the four axes..."

"..."

When they heard this, they looked at each other.

If it were so easy, would Batumi need such strict restrictions?

If control in one direction is added, the data that the CNC system needs to process will increase exponentially, which not only puts higher requirements on various hardware, but also on the software system.

"According to the current progress, how long will it take to build the control system for the four-axis?"

When Li Rui saw the expressions of several people, his originally excited mood seemed to be poured with a bucket of cold water.

It would be difficult to get more funding from the ministry if we couldn't brag based on reality.

He didn't understand the technology, but he knew that only CNC machine tools with four axes or above could greatly improve the manufacturing capabilities of aerospace systems.

"Two years!"

"too long!"

Li Rui shook his head.

"Principal, this is not something that can be done by simply adding a coordinate. For a four-axis system, the current HZ80 chip is not powerful enough to handle the huge amount of data. At the same time, the software requirements are also higher... We not only have no experience, but also no goals to refer to. Even two years may not be enough to achieve it."

Xie Wei poured a basin of cold water on Li Rui.

He was afraid that Li Rui would ask for a year or even half a year to complete the four-axis CNC system.

If I hadn't come to this world by accident, the first four-axis CNC machine tools in China would have to wait until the Berlin Wall was torn down before the first batch of four-axis CNC machine tools could be obtained from West Germany. Five-axis, forget it.

In this era, every five-axis machine tool and even five-axis system produced in the Western world is under surveillance, and once it moves, it will be discovered immediately.

Only when the country has four axes can it obtain small five-axis machine tools with low precision and backward control technology.

From the very beginning when he provided the design plan for the CNC system, Xie Wei was aiming for five-axis. According to history, it would take at least another twenty years before China could get some small five-axis linkage CNC machine tools.

How important this thing is can be understood from the fact that Toshiba secretly sold to the Soviet Union several five-axis CNC machine tools for processing propellers, and Soviet nuclear submarines disappeared directly from Western sonar monitoring stations.

High-precision CNC machine tools are essential key processing equipment for critical and complex aerospace parts.

China is extremely poor and cannot design a dedicated production line for each piece of equipment as the Soviet Union did.

"Is that so?"

A look of loss instantly appeared on Li Rui's face.

How can this be funded?
"Principal, if the ministry supports us and we can get sufficient funding, we should be able to speed up the progress."

Du Guowang saw Li Rui's disappointed face and spoke.

"Without results, I'm afraid the ministry will find it difficult to provide strong support."

Li Rui sighed.

This is the most contradictory part: the department needs better results before it can increase financial support for the project; and the project needs more funds to produce better results.

"Let's wait for the department leaders to come and see what the situation is."

Xie Wei felt that Li Rui's approach could only be carried out at noon, and problems would arise sooner or later.

The leaders in the department are all very shrewd, are they so easily fooled?

In desperation, Li Rui stopped talking about this matter and instead asked several people about the details of the school's CNC system and the results that could be produced by subsequent research.

This is necessary to deal with superiors.

Soon, Vice Minister Hu, who was responsible for negotiating with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' sales team, arrived at Harbin Institute of Technology.

Facing the school leaders such as Li Rui and Liu Debao who came to the station to pick him up, after exchanging pleasantries, he directly said, "Let's go and take a look at your CNC system first."

The convoy drove directly to the outside of the school's metalworking workshop.

The exteriors of all the equipment in the entire workshop have been wiped clean. Even some old equipment from before the liberation has mottled paint on its exterior, and there is no trace of oil stains.

The factory floor is also divided into various areas with paint.

"Huh? Your metalworking workshop is doing great!"

Deputy Minister Hu was a little surprised. "It's a bit like the 5S management of Japanese companies! Did anyone from our school go to Japan to visit and learn?"

"Leader, if the school wants to go abroad for visits and study, it also needs approval from the Ministry! This is something our school organized on its own."

Li Ruike didn't know what "5S" was. It was Xie Wei's requirement that the metalworking workshop had become in its current state without any chaos.

"Not bad! Not bad! We can promote this to other companies in the ministry."

Deputy Minister Hu looked at the workshop, nodded continuously, and then asked, "Where is your CNC system?"

He came here just for the CNC system.

"In front."

Li Rui pointed to a corner of the metalworking workshop that was cordoned off. No one from outside could see what was going on inside. "Minister Hu, I'll take you there."

As soon as he entered the isolated area, Deputy Minister Hu's eyes widened. "Is this really a CNC system? Such an advanced thing doesn't require a dust-free workshop with constant temperature and humidity?"

That's what the Mitsubishi people told them.

After all, a system costs $4!

If it is a machine tool, an ordinary CNC lathe, the starting price is $7.

Such expensive and advanced equipment is treated like this.

Is it really a CNC system?
"..."

Deputy Minister Hu's question left Li Rui and other school leaders at a loss as to how to answer. Even Du Guowang and Mu Zhiping, who were in charge, didn't know how to answer.

I haven't thought about this question at all!

"how?"

Deputy Minister Hu's face turned ugly, and he stared at Li Rui with sharp eyes, "Could it be that you are bragging about funding again?"

"It's unfair! Minister Hu!"

Li Rui felt like crying but had no tears.

He really didn't know how to explain it.

Could it be that the advancement of the CNC system can be demonstrated through a dust-free workshop with constant temperature and humidity?
"Minister Hu, CNC machine tools are used for mechanical processing, and the mechanical cutting process itself cannot completely achieve constant temperature and humidity. If CNC machine tools cannot maintain stable performance in harsh processing environments, it will be useless for us to research them!"

Xie Wei, who was not prepared to show up, had to stand up.

Vice Minister Hu's words reminded Xie Wei that when CNC machine tools were first introduced into China, even those with poor precision had to spend a large amount of money to build constant temperature and humidity workshops.

Machining itself is in conflict with the dust-free workshop.

"This is?"

Seeing that none of the school leaders answered, but a young man like Xie Wei stepped forward, Deputy Minister Hu couldn't help but be curious about Xie Wei's identity.

"Deputy Minister Hu, this is Xie Wei. He was the one who proposed the CNC system..."

"You are Xie Wei!"

Deputy Minister Hu looked at Xie Wei in surprise for a long time, "You are younger than I thought."

Everyone's eyes turned to Xie Wei.

It seems that this guy has a great reputation in the department.

"Aren't the electronic components of CNC systems very delicate? It is said that once they are covered with too much dust, they are prone to malfunction. Also, high temperature and humidity will affect the stability of the system."

The things proposed by Vice Minister Hu were all introduced by people from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

There is no such thing in China, and they have never seen it.

But when he thought about the fact that the CNC system combines a computer with a machine tool, he understood how delicate the computer is.

"Minister, that's not wrong."

Xie Wei smiled.

It seems that the department contacted the CNC machine supplier and was blackmailed, so they came to the school.

"A dust-free workshop with constant temperature and humidity can indeed increase the service life of electronic components. We have fully considered the use environment of machine tools during the research and development process... CNC machine tools are much more expensive than ordinary machine tools. If the unit that needs to use them still needs to spend huge amounts of money to build a dust-free workshop, what is the point of developing this CNC machine tool?"

Xie Wei's words made Mu Zhiping and others nod their heads repeatedly.

That's the truth.

If you want to build an advanced mechanical processing plant, do you first invest huge amounts of money in building a dust-free workshop?

How to control the impact on the environment caused by the dust generated during the processing and the high temperature volatilization of cutting fluid generated during the processing?

"No need?"

Deputy Minister Hu and the people he brought with him were all confused.

People from Mitsubishi have seriously introduced the impact of the environment on the processing accuracy, service life, etc. of CNC machine tools and CNC systems!
(End of this chapter)